GW 40k Gaming

So this Friday just gone, myself and Alun travelled down to our most local GW store in Cwmbran, which is still half hour away! I had planned to play store manager Etienne, all round nice guy and we'd been bantering for a while about who was going to win. 

Firstly though I had to take a picture of this. One of the guys painting to my left, a gentleman by the name of Shaun Beckett, was working on a contemptor in Imperial Fists colours, and while chatting he'd mentioned he'd finished one already and took it out... and I was blown away! Not only my most wanted fit if I get a contemptor of dual Kheres pattern assault cannons but nicely painted too. I'll definately be keeping an eye out for more of his miniatures when I visit the store!

So onto the game. 1500 points and 4 objectives in a modified version of the scouring. I was facing Necrons, and I should have been more fearful of this than I was! I took an assault based army using the white scars tactics again.

Early going, I moved up to the right with my bikes but failed a fairly long assault attempt. My jump packs did charge the wraiths however and in two combat turns I'd killed them... relief! Then all of a sudden Etiennes necron troops teleported away from my bikes and threatened the four point objective... I didn't know they could do that! Anyway, bitter fighting took place, my captain tried to take on a necron lord, I did wound but mindshackle scarabs made him wound himself and eventually killing himself. For 15 points they're horrible, its hard to believe a Necron player not taking them. My assault marines were brought down by another warrior squad with Obyron and a cryptek and I just didn't have enough to budge them away. 

If the game ended on turn 5 however I would have sneaked a win just by contesting and positioning units, but I ended up losing 12-3 I think... ouch! Those necrons have so many special rules, the death ray on the necron flyer is insane too, and they're just hard to keep down. Especially with 2 special characters and some more in the warriors and immortals... very cheesy! 

I still enjoyed it though, and I've learnt a little more about necrons. After the game myself and Alun played a 1000 pt game of Relic. Alun, who'd just built up his harlequins took eldar, and I used Marines again.

This game ended 1-1, I went after the objective straight away and managed to get it back towards my deployment zone but the rhino carrying it was blown apart and the lone tactical squad member carrying it was shredded by dire avenger fire. I did get first blood however, when my bikes and captain blew up the fire prism. Aluns point from slay the warlord after I rolled three ones on 6 saves. Eugh! Just wasn't my day dice rolling wise but thats how it rolls sometimes... heh. 

Next up are using the new Sternguard box for a new chapter master and possibly some honour guard, when I can get a vanguard boxed set too. I've got some ideas with what to equip the new chapter master model, so keep an eye out for some WIP pictures in the next couple of weeks.

APOCALYPSE!!!!!! Photos...

So the Apocalypse event at the Tredegars has come and gone, and it was a hell of a lot of fun despite a few minor obsticles! Firstly when I arrived at our venue at 7am the floor was covered in sleeping bags and half awake kids... It appears there'd been some miscommunication regarding the date! Luckily a lovely lady who was organising it said that the parents would be picking their kids up in an hour so we wouldn't be held back too long. We did have a couple of people fail to show up too which hurt one table a lot in terms of points, but both of the guys who were left seemed to have a good laugh regardless.

On our table we between 22-24k each, with the Imperial side having 2k more but the otherside had two super heavies... the Necron Obelisk, and the C'tan gargantuan creature... Uh oh! I had 8k of Krohmus Guard, and was allied with Morgans Space Wolves and Aluns pic'n'mix, which consisted of Black Templars, Eldar, Dark Eldar and Imperial Guard. Against us arrayed Chris with 5k of World Eaters and Death Guard, Liam with 8k of Night Lords, and Duane with 8k of mostly Necrons but some Tau also. We decided to speed things up by picking traits and powers, as we'd more likely remember them than looking at notes all the time. The Imperial side also won the chance to deploy and go first, and barely got everything on the board! Although, as is often the case I forgot about my scouts and Master of the Forge... Oops!

Duanes Obelisk was deployed opposite me in the centre, which I didn't mind as my Predator assassing squadron acquired it as its target. I faced mainly nightlords however and one of the best units of chosen I've ever seen... more later! The bulk of Duanes army faced Alun, and Morgan snarled his canines at the red and green of Chris' army. All that was left to do was commence play!

Tank Commander Chronus lined up his predator first at the Obelisk, and could see firepower being forced into it but most of it doing nothing. He opened up with all three lascannons ordering his comrades to do the same but they needn't have worried... Chronus' shots all hit which became a SD hit and took its 4 remaining hullpoints off. It exploded and promptly took out a wee chunk of Liams army... not much but it was something and the Obelisk couldn't now harm our sides flyers which was nice! 

My Chapter Master led an assault squad across the board into combat against a nightlords squad, where he hit twice against a champion who did nothing against the great hero but I failed to wound both times due to rolling snake eyes... I think he forgot to charge the thunder hammer or stick some fresh batteries in. 

My asset allowed me to allow all friendly deepstrikers to land exactly where they wanted with no scatter, with my Legion of the Damned formation coming across to the right flank to aid Aluns force and act as a road block to protect the objective there in the open. And that they did extremely well! 

Brutal fights broke out across the board as the importance of controlling objectives was huge. The Space Wolf force lunged across the board eager to get to the world eaters and death guard while the right flank tentatively advanced while unloading enourmous amounts of fire at the enemy. Then fire was returned.

One of them had also taken the same asset as myself, which allowed Duane to deepstrike this monolith right in amongst mine and Alun#s army, with the gateway weapon they have facing Alun's seer council! Only three were dragged in screaming, but one was Aluns Farseer, painful loss! 

On the left flank, and after my Sternguard had blown up Chris' land raider its occupants emerged from its charred heretic frame and stormed out to exact revenge, among them was Kharn. Needless to say the sternguard had no chance as they had lost their armour saves too! Typhus and 10 death guard terminators appeared too, and things looked a little dire for Morgans armu.

Heres a shot going up the board from the left flank, we played on a 12x4ft table with enough terrain to allow cover for advancing units but not too much to bog the game down. I couldn't help but pause at certain moments to just take in the scale of the game with how many models we had on the board, definately a rewarding sight!

This is how my centre was looking like around the end of turn one. 

More accurate deepstiking allowed Duane to unleash an attack on the Space Wolves which tore their armour off, leaving them with invulnerable saves or nothing!  Morgans face and poise said it all!

Heres the right flank, Legion of the Damned still holding up after being shot at and charged by Praetorians, Alun holding up well too although some Necrons flayed ones and Tau battlesuits appeared behind his lines. Hiding behind the Stormeagle was C'tan, this guy was horrid! Apoc blast and ST 10 ordnance, although it did get weaker as the blast stretched out. 

Morg's Long fangs get decimated by deepstriking deathmarks, and my command squad come out to play from the land raider crusader with a librarian and two chaplains. Both those and my now free Chapter msater storm into the Wraiths where a desperate struggle carries on for 2 combat turns... my guys eventually killing the wraiths before a Tomb Stalker jumps into the fray!

Liams chosen unit, all bearing corrupted loyalist colours were stunning, although I had no qualms in trying to kill them!

Enjoying a bit of a break among the dice rolling to see how much carnage has happened... Morgan activates something where some huge castrophies happen and end up with a huge piece of space debris lands on the table. I think Morg had something against me as he ended up causeing 3 wounds on my chapter master from a rampant Vortex his rune priests had called upon! The Tomb Stalker was then able to finish him off. Gutted!

Legion of the Damned doing what the do best, getting in the way and taking an age to die! Love these guys!

More of Liams Chosen, these are stunning! 

This was the casualties after a turn and a half or two of fighting... and this was just mine and Chris'! 

Another shot from the left flank looking up the battlefield. My thunderhammer temries take care of some deathguard, Morgs blood claws take care of Kharn, and Arjac knocks down Oberon THREE TIMES.... more on that towards the end though! They had a brutal fight on the objective on the left.

This is looking towards my deployment, Liams upright Defiler commanding an evil presence over the proceedings. This would get blown up by my Stormtalon however! Duanes C'tan had floated across the board into our deployment, and unleashed another apoc blast that took two of my predators down  hullpoint, and blew up Chronus' own tank. Several tactical members where also taken out too! My tacticla squads that had been in Rhino's had also been set upon by Chaos and Necrons, but they took down a lethal amount of scarabs and some Chaos Marines too. 

The Legion slowly being whittled down but holding on to an objective. Aluns Grey Knights are able to take down the C'tan after I'd wounded it with an Orbital Strike, the resulting explosion of the energy-based C'tan taking loads of models around it. A virus outbreak happens where every unit on foot on the board suffers a S3 wound equal to how many models are in the unit... this doesn't do an awful lot but in the last turn this turns into ST 10 ap 2... and it takes a lot out including several vehicles! Many comments such as "Why are we fighting on this planet again?" were muttered and laughed about as the catastrophies tore everything apart.

Legion of the damned holding the line, although there was only a few left at the end! Due to being extremely tired I didn't take any photos at the end, but the board was pretty empty due to the ST10 ap2 strikes hitting everything, and we called it game.  Oberon, who had stood up 3 times promptly finished Arjac off to claim an objective, and at the end Chaos had four and we had two... the final victory points however had shown we had 11 points, due to killing big things and claiming objectives at the first break. Also Morgan killed Kharn while in his finest hour give us more points. The end total was 11-11!

What an immense game. After all that brutal fighting it had finished a draw, and I think it was great that it did. Both sides would have struggled to field a five a side team after all the killing that had taken place, and we'd had so much fun that no matter how the points would have been we all won from it. 

For me the highlights were just seeing this epic sight in front of me and holding my own. I'd forgot to use some of the new Codex rules and the Ultramarines chapter tactics I'd taken, although I don't think much difference would have been made anyway! It was great too that noone was wiped out, with us all having at least a few models left on the board at the end. The C'tan blowing up was hilarious, as was Alun failing his first shadow field save, Morg woudning my chapter master into the bargain and his space wolves losing their armour! I'm also incredibly happy with how well my Legion of the Damned did, with about 4 surviving holding the objective til the end. I love this unit! After re-writing my army list the day before taking exactly the same I'd saved about 500-600 points... the new codex is such a delight to use!

So what of the other battle? Well here it is!

Byron's huge amount of metal terminators took on Jacobs Tyranids, his Warhound was taken out on the first time and it was all downhill from there. He put up a valiant effort though and both players could be heard laughing throughout the day at Byron's predicament. Plus it looked awesome!

Jacobs Tyranids are insane, he has about 20k all painted with all these monstrosities! ~We're hoping to take some army pics soon and have them all deployed on show, I think more for Jacob to see what he has more than anything!

I'm sure I've missed a bunch of details from the day but so much happened its hard to keep track of unless everything is written down, and that would likely bog the game down. We finished on time as planned though so it all went well!  

I can't wait to do another of these or another campaign day, they're both so much fun. Huge thanks to everyone that attended, especially Liam and Duane who are both from Castle Gamers in the Bridgend area of South Wales, go look them up if you're down there as they're genuine gents and great people to play against. I'll have my first battle report coming up in the week too from the new Codx, so keep your eyes peeled!

Apocalypse!

"The enemy is many, their hearts blackened with hate and minds lost to the warp. Today, we bring the Emperors light to them. Smite the heretics, burn the Xenos, for they deserve nothing else." 

Orneus Gyozo, Chaplain if the Evandalists

And so its Apocalypse time! I've been waiting for this for a wee while, Rhys, who meets up with some of his friends in Brecon got in touch with our club inviting us to go and take part in a huge apocalypse game. He'd contacted a few other clubs too, but many were unable to make it. We did however get 7 of us in total and had a great day in the home of the Jazz Festival! So the players...

Imperium

Myself with my Evandalists and a small Tau contingent

Rhys with Blood Angels, Grey Knights, some baneblades and a Warhound

Liam with Night Lords (yes they're chaos but we had someone pull out and needed a baddy, Night Lords it was!)

Chaos/Xenos

Adam with his Nurgle Marines

George with a large amount of Necrons

Scott with his Eldar

Duane with Necrons and Tau.

Points wise there was at least 25k each! To win you needed objectives and to kill the opposing Warmaster, who was a player picked HQ. Ours was Draigo, and the enemies was of course Abbadon.

Deployment!

We thankfully got to go first, I took the right flank, Rhys took the centre where his Warhound and superheavies could control the middle ground or reinforce a flank if needed and Liam took the left side of the table. The enemy deployed, Adams Nurgle force faced Liam, George put his monoliths in the centre and then some of his force oppostite me. Scotts Eldar were between mine and Rhys' force, and Duance deployed all over the bloody place! I faced a lot of Wraiths, who would be difficult to kill. 

Heres my army, deployed for war! I did have a couple of dreads and bikes to the right of this too.

Rhys' lovely painted vindicators, warhound and baneblade ha. Theres were close by to myself and commanded the centre.

This is Liams Defiler conversion, looks amazing!

First turn charges are unheard of unless you play apocalypse! My terminators were bogged down against necrons for pretty much the entire battle! The thunderhammers beat a unit of Lychguard after a few turns then waded in to help the last lightning claw termie and my Chapter Master. Brutal!

Huge monolith and another monolith were destroyed in the first turn, thats insane! Glad the warhound and superheavies were on our side, George also brought down two Necron pylons later in the battle and did a lot of damage but again Rhys destroyed them with a lot of firepower.

Even smelly Nurgle followers drink coffee!

Game in full swing

Chaos versus Chaos turned out to be brutal after all...

Later in the game, I make my push to control my objective. The enemy crisis team are shot apart, and I clear the objective of jetbikes and get my tactical squad on there. 

More of the battle

Another bloody battle around an objective, Necrons and Eldar battling the Blood Angels and Grey Knights for control of this one

A mass of Krey Knight terminators controlled the objective in this bastion complex after clearing it of Tau and Necrons

End of the game! I managed to keep control of the objective, making the last few Warp Spiders of a unit flee from combat after the Tactical sarge slapped one with his power fist. 

As you can see, theres not much left on the chaos derby table! 

And finally, had to show off Liams Storm Eagle, such a nice looking flyer! 

And so battle was done, and the Imperium had won 6-0. Despite the score it was close and we could have lost a couple of objectives easily. The best part? We had a huge amount of fun! It was really nice meeting the guys too, and we're hoping to do battle once again in the dark future... where there is only war! 

For me, my favourite highlights were...

Using my Callidus assassin for the first time ever, despite having the model for about 15 years.

Getting all my other vehicles weathered in time and being pretty proud at how good they looked on the table, very chuffed! 

Holding my own against Necrons, I don't know how to play against them that much so was happy with how well I did not to let them get in my face.

Seeing everyone get on well and having fun. This hobby is community driven, and its awesome that a set of rules in a book can bring together number of people together who have never met and get along easily. 

So a great day and hopefully more to come, Rhys has already mentioned about organising another game. Hopefully we'll have a few games on at one time and just a couple of players per side to each table so it runs a little quicker. All in all though, awesome day!

Day of 40K.

Thats right, a day. we opened the doors at 10am, and were able to get started by mid-day. We thought about this for a wee while, so I was able to organise to have the hall we play in for a full day for a pretty good price. Let the onslaught proceed! 

We had two teams, Imperial, and non Imperial. On the Imperial side was Morgan and his Space Wolves, Aaron and his Blood Angels, Jamie with his Grey Knights, and myself with my Evdandalists and new allies the Tau. Chaos gods had spoken into the minds of Louis, Mike and Owain, Bam fielded his Legion of the Damned army with the evil ones, and Alun and his Necrons also stood to invade the Emperors world.

First of all we played two games. Owain, Mike and Louis vs Morgan and Aaron, whereas myself and Jamie took on Bam and Alun.

The Imperium lost both opening games, not a good start! We'd decided also to make a note of player points, and after the first game Bam had taken the lead and I was not far behind. Not bad considering a loss! Jamie's Grey Knights failed to make much impact and lack of numbers proved decisive. I still had some troops left and had my Termies killed Bams Captain and Dread or I could have finished off his tactical squad holding a vital objective, I could have stolen the game. Moral victory, not just for that but my Predator gained revenge against Aluns Doomsday Ark by blowing it out of the sky, YES! 

Onto the next round, and to make it interesting we all had to nominate who was playing on what table. We had three, so that meant the Chaos team would have two duos and a single, whereas we had one tandem and two single players. After thinking about how they may plan their attack, I calculated that Owain and Mike would play together, Louis and bam would tema up, and Alun would be on his lonesome. And I was right. I took on Owain and Mike, Aaron and Jamie took on Louis and Bam, and Morgan and Alun continued their storied rivalry.

I won deployment and set up knowing that a good opening round of shooting would be a great start and put the Chaos side on the back foot. As Mike and Owain deployment Bam and Louis cheered as they stole the initiative. Unlucky! Owain rolled to steal it in our game... and promptly rolled a six. No! I'd set up quite aggressively too, with a couple of units fairly open.

 The first turn saw my Hammerhead nearly being destroyed by a Defiler, luckily I made the cover save. Mikes Dread was in range with its multimelta, hit, penetrated and then blew it up. That was painful! My Hammerhead failed to hit anything all game until the final turn, despite only needing to roll 3+. It was fianlly able to kill Owains Slaanesh dreadnought and deny him a point for having a unit in my deployment zone. My Land Raider was able to destroy the Defiler and deliver my Captain and Termies onto Mikes objective, where my Warlord roll to make my Captain a scoring unit would prove vital. The Stealth team were able to cause some pain to Owains troops, slowly whittling down his units. My Storm Talon killed Lucious the (not so) Eternal with a couple of Krak Missile shots and also managed to kill more of Owains squad to deny them another objective, although he was able to get his other unit on there. After the first turn I felt like I was going to lose, but managed to wrest control and get a vital win. Elsewhere, Aaron and Jamie were pounded, losing to the vile duo of Bam and Louis. Morgan and Alun fought out a stalemate, each side unable to capture the relic. Final game!

This was on a bigger board, 8x4. 3x3 and 2k points each. Me, Jamie and Morgan versus Louis, Alun and Bam. Vitaly we got the first turn, although Night Fighting was in effect.

 

Due to time constraints, we were only able to get in three turns each, and that was 3 hours of game time! We had played for 12 hours, and every hour was packed with fun. This was still plenty of time for plenty of blood to be shed. Jamie managed to get himself some better luck in this game and got us our first kill points. First Blood by taking out the Doomsday Ark, great start to the game! My vindicator survived 4 glances by getting a 6+ cover save due to nightfighting by rolling two sixes, cue me fist pumping. Morgans drop pod troops and blood claws were embroiled in long combats that swung either way, although Logan Grimnar killed himself after mind control scarabs infiltrated the old mans mind and made him smack his own head. Should have retired! My storm talon killed bams predator and a necron flyer, I also took out a big necron warrior squad and chaos squad with my captain and termies, and my firewarriors took out a last raptor and finished off a couple of terminators that were Fabius Biles bodyguard. We also lost a lot of units, 2 Land Raiders, my Hammerhead, and several squads all died in the name of the Emperor. However, it was not in vain! After the third turn we had more victory points, although overall from the other games we were down by several. After much totalling up we had discovered that I had the most points of any player, YES! Not sure how but it was nice to see that I've got back to winning ways, especially against such good opposition. 

I know there are many other tales of heroism and luck, sneakyness and straight out jamminess, but my memory barely remembers my own stories let alone other peoples. I'm very happy with how my Tau have integrated with my Space Marines and look forward to perhaps one day fielding and all Tau force. 

Onwards!